Specifying the locale

Setting the system keyboard

To change the console keyboard configuration, log in as root and select a keyboard from the ``Keyboard'' list in the main window of the International Settings Manager. Select ``Keyboard'' in the main screen and select Settings Modify , or simply double-click on ``Keyboard''.

This specifies the keyboard configuration file used by the system keyboard for conversion of each keystroke from scancodes to the codeset currently in use on the console.

NOTE: Once you have changed the system keyboard setting, restart the X server. (A simple way to do this is to log out and log back in.)

For example, a French keyboard and an American English keyboard may both have the same physical layout, and the keys in any given position may return the same codes, but the keycodes have different symbols (``glyphs'', or printable characters) attached to them. The French keyboard returns different characters than the American English keyboard.

Keyboard files specify the country-specific layouts of AT^®- and PS/2^®-style keyboards. All the keyboard files are stored in /usr/lib/keyboard. These files map the system keyboard to the given national standard. The keyboard file for a particular national standard might need to be modified for a specific keyboard. If you need to modify the keyboard map, or create a new one, copy the appropriate file in /usr/lib/keyboard to a new file in the same directory and modify the new file. Name the file according to this convention:

keyboard_type.codeset.country